WTD? Vehicle

The word this week for What the Doodle? is VEHICLE.
Here's what the FableVision crew came up with.

Allie Biondi

Katelyn Walsh

Ryan McNulty


Watch animation in full resolution.
Matt Bargar and Naomi Greenfield


John Lechner

Hannah O'Neal


Watch animation in full resolution.
Created by Peter H. Reynolds for TJ Shay
(using FableVision's Animation-ish software)

Check back in a couple weeks for the next word!

UPDATE: 8/4/09

Renee Kurilla

We Think

Peter just passed this on to me. It's a video/trailer for a book by Charles Leadbeater that puts into perspective the potential of the Web and how it continues to bring like minds together and spread ideas so effectively. That's definitely one of the primary goals of Creative Juices. It begins "Welcome to the world of We Think"...and continues "The Web gets really interesting when people pool their ideas...then they start to be really creative." It proclaims that where the 20th century was about Mass Production, the 21st century will be about Mass Innovation. Also, instead of you are what you own, it becomes you are what you share.

...an interesting way of communicating the message in its own right, too.

Here's a link to We-think where you can download and read the first 3 chapters.

Plukart!

How's that for doodling? Jim "Plukart" is on Flickr.

Lots of cartoony, weird, crazy drawings.

Sesame Workshop's Spike and Bubbles

via Cold Hard Flash

"Check out this beautiful short produced at Dancing Diablo. Lineboil.com contributor Dan Forgione was the animation director on the piece, which was produced for Sesame Workshop. It’s titled Spike and Bubbles."

I love this simple little narrative, which basically teaches kids about sharp things, bubbles, friendship, and teamwork. The characters are wonderfully bizarre and it's great how the background not only changes as characters pass through it—paint blotches even follow them around. The music is spot on, too....notice there are no words or dialogue.

Creative Juices on Facebook!

Howdy, Creative Juicers and Fablefolk! Allie's previous post was our 200th post! (This is 201) Not bad since we started the blog almost 2 years ago. There's a bit of activity going on behind the scenes as we continue to spread inspiration and creativity. We recently launched a Fan Page on Facebook.

If you frequent Facebook--> Join here!

You'll get Creative Juices updates in your news feed. This was on a suggestion from CJ contributor Naomi (thanks!).

We're also working on a new look and feel. Here's a little guy I conjured up.


And some possible logotype treatments.


Thanks for staying with us this long. And if you're a new reader, welcome aboard! There's lots more to come!

How to pick an idea.

Do you ever feel like you have so many ideas swimming around in your head, that you don't know which one to go with?
This plagues me, most of my time. Aside from having a gazillion artistic interests I want to follow through with, there's always a part of me saying "hey, your a musician too, remember?! That rock opera isn't going to write itself."
Sometimes I feel like this holds me back from doing anything at all because I want to do it all. At the same exact time. Yet I just can't seem to grow those extra arms I could use.
How does a person satisfy so many interests with also finding time to exercise, wash their dishes, and make non microwave food?
I was wondering how other folks deal with this.

SpongeBob is Everywhere

You may have noticed that SpongeBob has been popping up even more than usual over the past few weeks. It's because the show recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Say what you will of the yellow sponge, but you can't deny his popularity. People (kids especially) LOVE SpongeBob. VH1 recently debuted a documentary special "Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob Squarepants", Nickelodeon aired a 50-hour marathon last weekend, and Nick Mag currently has an "Ultimate SpongeBob Issue" on news stands. The Atlantic also recently published a great article called SpongeBob's Golden Dream which I think does a unique job of putting everything in perspective.

I posted some spongy thoughts on my blog as well. And I wanted to take this post to highlight some great SpongeBob art.

Sherm Cohen is an amazingly talented cartoonist who worked on the show in the early days as a writer, storyboard artist, and director. His artwork frequents the covers of Nick Mag, and he's one of the best SpongeBob artists around in my opinion. He just posted a bunch of illustrations he did for the Village Voice (posts 1 and 2) a few years back that are some of the best SpongeBob imagery I've seen outside of the show. Here are a few favorites:



And then there are the often sick and twisted drawings of Robertryan Cory. About a month ago he started posting production art from the show on his Flickr account and he keeps adding to it. He seems to be tasked with the more elaborate, exaggerated, grotesque, and cartoony drawings needed in the show. They are some of my favorite drawings PERIOD as of late, and definitely worth your attention.




You may be annoyed by his laugh, you may be tempted to label the shows overly hyper-active, and you may be sick of all the merchandising (I love this camera), but now that the show has been on for over a decade, I think it's a good time to reflect on the phenomenon that is SpongeBob. A character like this only comes around once a generation (once a century, even—I would easily qualify SpongeBob as the new Mickey Mouse). From The Atlantic article:

...the SquarePants writers are interested in stories, even in lessons. Again and again, a kind of innocence triumphs—over fear, over snobbery, and over skepticism.

Trotting along bright-hearted, laughing his spray-on headache of a laugh, he will not succumb to complication. His corner of the world is all levity. Embrace him, drained adult. Where you see his little yellow flag, salute it; it’s a sign of life.

Here's to that!

SpongeBob © 2009 Viacom International Inc. All rights reserved. NICKELODEON, SpongeBob SquarePants, and all related titles, logos, and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. SpongeBob Created by Stephen Hillenburg.

Stop Motion!

Hear Ye Hear Ye!
Fable Stop Motion is a Go!

This morning I set up the brand spanking new stop motion stand. Here's a few pictures of the progress. This is just the beginning!



And here's a little test I did to make sure the camera and computer liked each other.
And they do.

Interactive Muppet Map

Check this out:

http://www.nationalpost.com/muppets/index.html

Everything from H. Ross Parrot to Captain Vegetable to the Yip Yips to Ernie and Bert!

Amazing to think about how many of these muppets were actually the same base but just with noses and eyes swapped out, and yet they still each had character on their own.

My Influences, by Dan Meth

My Influences from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

This is some kind of fantastic trip down cartoon lane...all sorts of cultural and visuals references clipping by at a fun pace. Blissful, really :)

via Drawn

WTD? Publicity

The word this week for What the Doodle? is PUBLICITY.
Here's what the FableVision crew came up with.

Keith Zulawnik

Renee Kurilla

Bob Flynn

Allie Biondi

Jay LaCouture

Hannah O'Neal

Check back in a couple weeks for the next word!